"Uwaaaah~ I love Sundays!" Rui sighed happily as she walked. She was on her way to the convenience store, wanting to use a new gashapon that had been installed. This one had sparkly bead bracelets, decoder rings that looked like they were made of diamonds, and temporary tattoos of princesses! She was going to try and get all three prizes.
However, as she walked, a car steadily approached her, pulling to the curb and rolling down the window as it came closer. Rui turned with a curious look, then her eyes widened. "Oh!"
Meanwhile, further down, Kumi rounded a corner. "Okay," she said to herself, looking at her phone's note app. "Peanut-butter, canned coffee, and Mom's special bread. That'll be easy."
"Do your parents often send you to the store like this?" asked Glimmer from Kumi's bag.
"Only when Natsumi's busy - and she's hanging out with Momoka today! Hm?" Kumi looked up and spotted Rui in the distance. She was talking to a strange woman who was leaning out her car window. They were too far away to hear what was being said, but suddenly the woman gestured towards her car and moved back inside.
And then Rui walked forward and, without another word, got into the car.
"R-Rui?!" Kumi and Glimmer shouted together.
The car just drove away, leaving Kumi panicked and rattled from what she'd just seen. This…. This was a kidnapping!
OP: Your Glow
Episode 14: Rui's Been Kidnapped?! Rescue Mission, Go!
"She's what?!" cried Masako and Haru. Kumi had called them right away, and now the three of them stood where Kumi had last seen Rui. There weren't many people around yet, so Glimmer was able to get out of Kumi's bag and into plain sight.
Kumi nodded fretfully. "I saw it with my own two eyes! Glimmer saw it too, so that makes four eyes! Rui got kidnapped!"
"I didn't realize there were such bad people in Kirazaka…" Haru murmured anxiously.
Masako put a hand on her shoulder and addressed Kumi. "How long ago was it?"
"About five minutes. I don't think they should be too far away, but we need to hurry and find them! Before something happens to Rui - like, being put into a weird talent group and made to perform English songs on foreign TV, or made to sweep in an inn, o-or put to work in an underground candy factory!" Kumi's voice was getting higher and higher the more she spoke, one terrible scenario unfolding in her mind after another.
Masako put her other hand on Kumi's shoulder. "Calm down…"
"Shouldn't we go to the police?" asked Glimmer, blinking.
"The police? No way!" cried Kumi. "By the time we find a police box, it could be too late - Rui could be halfway to Canada by then!"
"And even if we did, what could they even do? Kumi's the only one who saw the car and saw Rui get in, and they might not even believe us!" agreed Haru. Masako nodded in agreement.
Glimmer tried not to groan. This was the worst timing. She should have been spending today telling the girls about their newfound power, trying to see if she could change back to a human. Or at the very least, focusing all her brain power on what kind of Usugurai had shown up at the kindergarten several days ago. She'd never seen something like that; the people of Lustre weren't taken up into the monsters, they were turned to stone. Onyx never had power like that, not even when he was their friend. Something wasn't right.
But instead, this had happened.
No, no, that wasn't fair, she thought again with a small sigh. Rui needed their help. It wasn't her fault.
"So," she said. "If calling the police is out of the question…" The other three nodded again, as if to emphasize this. "...then what are we going to do?"
"Glimmer, you and me saw the car that took her!" Kumi declared. "We're going to find that car!"
"We're going to follow a car on foot?"
"Yes! We can't go back for bikes, we have no choice!" Kumi cried, turning and running down the sidewalk….
...only to turn the corner and spot the very car she was after, parked outside a strip mall.
"Huh," remarked Glimmer.
"They must not have gone far," Masako observed as the group walked closer. "Kumi, was this definitely the car you saw?"
"I'm sure of it," Kumi said, nodding sternly. She pointed to the car as she spoke. "Green Toyota with a pink bumper sticker that's almost faded completely. And in the back window, a yellow teddy bear. Rui was definitely in this one!"
Haru slowly walked up to the car, cupping her hands around her eyes as she leaned against the window and looked in. "She's not here anymore," she said. "Nobody is - they must have gotten out and left."
"But where…?" Masako muttered, looking around.
A few moments later, Haru gasped and tugged on Masako's sleeve. "Over there!" she said, pointing across the parking lot.
There, on the other side of the lot, was Rui walking alongside a strange woman dressed in unassuming blue jeans, a white turtleneck, and with short black hair that curled around her chin. The woman was looking down at Rui, her face turned away from the girls. But they could tell that she was talking to their friend, from the way Rui was nodding every now and then and watching the woman intently. After a few moments, Rui began to respond, but they were all too far away to hear.
But still, there she was! Right there!
Haru cupped her hands around her mouth and took in a deep breath. "Ru-" she began, only for Kumi to suddenly yank her wrists down and Masako to cover her mouth.
"Haru, what are you doing?" Kumi hissed.
Glimmer blinked up at her. "I could ask you the same…" she muttered.
The girls released Haru, and Kumi glared down at Glimmer. "Everyone knows you never yell out to the kidnapper. That's how the kidnapper knows you know they're a kidnapper, and that means the kid they kidnapped is in even more danger," she said stoutly, hands on her hips.
Masako nodded in agreement. "I read it in Following A Mystery Woman. When Yuri yelled for her friend, the kidnapper picked her friend up and ran away. Then she went after Yuri, because she knew too much."
"Oh! How awful!" Haru gasped, hugging herself and shuddering. "So what do we do, transform?"
The other two exchanged anxious looks. "Well, we don't wanna hurt her…" Kumi admitted. "That's a person, not an Usugurai…"
"I say we follow them until Rui's alone, then get her out of there," Masako said.
"Oh! Good, that's a good plan!"
Glimmer sighed. "You better hurry, then. Because they're going into that cafe over there," she said, pointing as the girls squawked in alarm.
In the royal castle of Lustre, Sterling sat glumly on the bottom steps that led out into the hallway. It was the very same hall she had wandered down months ago, seeing the statues that had once been people. It hadn't really made her happy then, and it didn't make her happy now, either.
How could she be happy?
Not only had they messed up everything in Lustre, but Onyx just wasn't even himself anymore. He was slowly waking up again, yes, but he was so cruel to herself and Electrum. She hadn't dared to speak to him after the new Usugurai had been defeated - neither of them had. But it was the way he had been acting before that.
Demanding them to wake him up. Snapping at them all the time. He didn't care what they had been going through while he was asleep, didn't care about anything but Lustre.
And not even in the way he did before.
"It's incredible," he'd gushed to her one night, poring over one of the books in the castle library. "Pretty Cure existed here, so long ago! They protected our kingdom and sealed their power to keep us safe even without them."
"That's amazing!" Sterling gasped.
"If we could find that power… if we could harness it ourselves, who knows what we could do…"
Everything was going sideways and belly-up, it seemed.
She sighed, forcing herself to stand up and walk away. She needed something to eat. She'd feel better after something was in her stomach.
But on her way, she paused. She looked around.
"Hey…" she mumbled, noticing the empty spot in front of her, where the statue of a maid had once stood. "Weren't there more people before?"
The cafe was a small but spacious place, with a row of pastel tables and chairs along the wall so they could look out the window. Most of the seating was along the wall, with three more settings in the middle of the floor to allow for freer movement. Several plants hung from the ceiling, and there was a cheery window garden outside.
The most ironic place to pull off a heinous crime, Kumi thought.
The three girls and Glimmer sat at a nearby table, holding large menus up to cover their faces. They were two tables away from Rui and the strange woman - it was too dangerous to sit at the very next table. They'd be caught that way. There hadn't been any time to disguise themselves further, so they had to awkwardly hold the menus straight up and hunch over, all on one side of the table so they could all watch Rui and her kidnapper.
"What are they doing?"
Kumi slowly peeked around the side of her menu, her eyes narrowed as if it would help her see better. "They're just talking," she whispered to Masako. "Rui's got a breakfast parfait, though. She's eating it and talking at the same time."
"Well, what are they saying?"
"I can't see what the woman's saying, her back is to me. But Rui's…" Kumi squinted harder, desperately trying to read her lips. "Uhm… Something about school… or maybe about a drum?"
"Maybe it's both," offered Haru.
"Maybe she's trying to kidnap Rui and send her to her drumming school, like in To the Beat of the Kidnapper," Masako said. "In that one, it turned out Yuri's evil estranged uncle needed more students to keep his taiko drumming school afloat and was taking her friends from summer camp."
"She doesn't look like a taiko drummer," said Haru, pushing her glasses up her nose. "She looks more like… She looks like a cool and trendy teacher."
"Maybe she's working with the drummers, then."
Glimmer coughed slightly, catching their attention. When the three girls looked down at her, she sat back on her haunches and attempted to cross her front paws. "I think you're jumping to conclusions here. There's nothing to actually suggest Rui's been kidnapped. Besides, she's a Pretty Cure. Wouldn't she have transformed and fled by now, if she were in danger?"
"Maybe this woman's got blackmail material!" Haru gasped.
"Or there's a hostage. Maybe she's got her dads tied up somewhere." Kumi nodded as she spoke.
"You don't know the full situation, Glimmer. We have to handle this delicately!"
"Ah, excuse me?" a fourth voice suddenly spoke up. The girls gasped and looked up to see a uniformed waitress standing by the table, smiling awkwardly at them. "Are the three of you ready to order?"
Haru's face reddened and she began stammering slightly. Masako looked up over her menu and dropped it with a gasp. "Girls, girls!" she cried, tugging Kumi's sleeve. "Look, they're leaving!"
Masako was right. Rui and the woman were standing up, the woman gathering her purse and jacket which she'd folded over the back of the chair. The two were quickly heading for the front door, the woman holding Rui around her shoulders.
"Uh.. miss, your orders?"
"Nope, we're good, thank you!" Kumi shouted, scooping up Glimmer in her hands and bolting out of her chair. The other two followed her, tripping over each other's feet in the process and causing a slight delay. When the three were finally running out the door, Rui and the woman were already halfway down the road.
The waitress stared after them blankly for a few moments, then sighed. "I don't think I understand children anymore…" she mumbled.
Eyecatch 1: Kumi, Masako, Haru, and Rui are shown one by one wearing a princess dress in their theme colors. Then the four pose in front of a mirror together as the Crown Jewels Pretty Cure logo appears in the corner.
Eyecatch 2: Kumi is shown in front of a vanity, holding a series of earrings up in front of her. She cycles through pink hearts, blue diamonds, yellow teardrops, and green clovers before settling on white crowns. She then clips the crown earrings onto Glimmer's ears as the Crown Jewels Pretty Cure logo appears in the corner.
Rui sat on a bench, drinking a soda. She tipped it all the way back, guzzling the very last of it before lowering the can to her lap with a satisfied phwah! "That chocolate parfait made me thirsty," she laughed.
The woman next to her giggled, covering her mouth.
Rui and the woman sat on a park bench together, while the other girls hid behind a nearby tree. Kumi was pouting in bitter disappointment. "Now I really can't see what they're saying."
Masako gave her a look. "Kumi, you couldn't even read their lips in the first place."
"I know but it could still be worth a shot!"
Glimmer sighed; she lost track of how often she'd been doing that today. "Girls, I really think you're jumping to conclusions," she tried to say. "Rui looks fine."
"That's what everyone in 'Lessons in Danger' thought, too," said Masako. "But then it turned out that the kidnap victim was only pretending so her friends wouldn't be in danger, because the kidnapping teacher knew they were being followed." Masako suddenly gasped, covering her mouth. "Wait, maybe she knows we're onto her."
"We should move further away, then," offered Haru.
"But we need to see them!"
Kumi frowned, then gasped, smacking her fist into the palm of her hand. "Oh, I have an idea!"
A few minutes later, the group was sitting in a swan boat, drifting lazily across the water. They were far away enough that they wouldn't be recognized, but close enough to keep an eye on Rui and the mystery woman. Kumi had even pulled her cell phone out and had opened up the camera, zooming in all the way to use it as a substitute for binoculars. Everyone else crowded in close to see.
Rui and the woman were sitting and talking to each other, and… that was it. Rui was swinging her legs and gesturing excitedly, and the woman was nodding along, occasionally speaking as well.
Glimmer shook her head. "I'm telling you, she's fine."
"But that lady's a stranger," said Haru. "Nobody stays with a stranger that long on purpose."
"Have you considered maybe they do know each other? Maybe she's an old friend of the family. Or a favorite teacher."
But Glimmer's words went ignored as Kumi suddenly gasped. "They're leaving again!"
Everyone looked. She was right, Rui and the woman were getting up from the bench and walking off yet again.
"Oh crap, pedal, pedal back to shore!" shouted Kumi.
Unfortunately, nobody was sure who should be doing what, resulting in the three girls bumping into each other, Masako and Kumi pedaling to send the boat in the wrong way, the boat spinning in a circle instead of actually going forward, and Haru nearly falling overboard.
And while all that chaos was going on, Rui and the woman casually walked down the path towards a food stand, blissfully unaware.
It was around two o'clock when the pair made their way back to the parking lot. After the park, Rui and the woman had gone to a toy store to look at stuffed animals, won a candy prize from a claw game, and done some window shopping. But the woman had only so much free time, and now they had to head back.
"Well, Rui," said the woman - Satoko - as they walked down the sidewalk together. "I had a good time today."
"Yeah," said Rui with a nod. "It's too bad you gotta go back to work tonight…"
"Oh, don't worry, I'll swing by when I get more vacation time." Satoko's grin turned a bit mischievous, and she leaned down to whisper to Rui. "I think next time we should invite your friends."
Rui blinked. "Eh?"
"You didn't notice?" Satoko's eyes darted to the side. "Don't look, but we've had some followers all day. Three girls about your age."
Rui stood there for a moment, thinking. Then her eyes went wide as realization dawned on her. "Oh!" she gasped. "Oh my God, I'm sorry!"
"No, no, don't be. It's kinda funny." Satoko laughed behind her hand as she straightened up. "I'll call ahead next time and we can all go out as a group. Maybe bowling?"
"That'd be fun."
"Alright, I'd better go now before your friends start freaking out. I'll see you later." Satoko bent down again, ruffling Rui's hair, then got into her car. She rolled the window down so she could wave goodbye at Rui as she pulled out of the parking space, then drove off, leaving the girl to wave.
After the car turned a corner and was out of sight, Rui heard the sound of several fast, heavy footfalls.
"R-u-iiiiii!" Kumi's voice cried, and suddenly Rui was buckling under the other girl's weight as Kumi threw herself at her in a hug. "Oh thank goodness you're okay!"
"K-Kumi…" Rui stammered.
Masako and Haru were next to join the group hug, trapping Rui in the center. "We were so worried!" Masako said. "We wanted to keep an eye on you-"
"-I didn't know if we should call the police or not but we just kept watching out for you and-" Haru was blubbering, tears streaming down her face and fogging up her glasses.
"G-Girls! Girls, what's wrong? Why would you need to call the police?! I was fine!"
Slowly, everyone withdrew, but Kumi kept her hands on Rui's shoulders. Kumi sniffled wetly, and looked intensely into Rui's eyes. "I saw you get into that woman's car earlier this morning," she explained. "I called the others right away, and we went to make sure you were okay. We didn't want something to happen!"
"Woman's…" Rui echoed, blinking. Then realization dawned on her. "You thought I was kidnapped?"
"Of course!"
Rui stared for a few seconds. Then, she pressed her lips together tightly, a few sounds escaping her. Her eyes teared up, her face reddened a bit, and then… she bent down, laughing.
"Eh? Rui?" Masako said.
"Y-You guys thought… Oh, my gosh, Kumi, I'm sorry!" Rui laughed. "That wasn't a strange lady! That was my mom!"
Everyone stared. It was so silent one could hear a pin drop.
Then:
"Ehhhhh?" everyone chorused.
"Y-Yeah! My dads got a- a surrogate. And after I was born, she wanted to still be able to see me. So we invite her over for holidays and my birthday, and when she has the chance to get away from her job she comes over to visit me. I haven't seen her since the first day of school, so I spent some time with her. I'm sorry you guys all got the wrong idea, but I was never in danger at all!"
Everyone continued staring, dumbfounded expressions on their faces.
In Masako's arms, Glimmer laughed under her breath. "I told you girls there was nothing to worry about."
"Maaan…" Kumi murmured, face reddening. "I feel so stupid…"
"Don't be, Kumi! You were worried about me, that's all."
Suddenly Kumi's cell phone rang. The redhead pulled it out, face paling when she checked the caller ID. "It's my mom!" she cried. "I totally forgot all about the groceries!" Sheepishly, she accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. "H-Hiiiii, Mom…" she said.
Everyone watched as Kumi winced, holding the phone slightly away from her ear. "Y-Yeah, I'm sorry! I'm here with my friends, we're fine… No, I wasn't goofing off!... I didn't forget… H-Huh?! Grounded?! But that's so unfair!"
Kumi's friends all winced as well, in varying degrees of sympathy.
Glimmer sighed and shook her head. Well, maybe tomorrow they could focus on Pretty Cure matters.
ED: Miracles Can Happen